Anno 117's Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Reveals Itself as a Stunning First-Person View.
Surprisingly — did you realize you can play Anno 117 Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? Should that be your response, you’re just as shocked as I was when I discovered this secret option. Allow me to step away from managing my empire, leave it in a reliable subordinate, take a wagon, and take a spin around the classical city.
Unlocking the First-Person Feature
As a city-building game, Anno 117 Pax Romana is typically played from an overhead perspective. However, if you enter a secret combination — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — it becomes possible to roam the realm as a regular inhabitant. Since a similar easter egg was part of Anno 1800, I looked forward to experience it in Ubisoft's newest game, though I was uncertain it would operate until I found myself stuck in a Celtic building (possibly an unexpected bug — this mode is somewhat unstable occasionally).
Exploring the Streets of Rome
Upon freeing myself, I walked the lively avenues through my metropolis and visited shops, taverns, blossom gardens, and shellfish gatherers — it felt magnificent to see the fruits of my labor from a brand-new perspective. I noticed all kinds of details I might have missed when viewing from overhead: Front door decorations, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, chickens running loose, citizens lounging on their terraces… Merely examining the design of a windowsill and the coloration on a post is quite interesting to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
Beyond Simple Strolling
Yet, the experience extends to the first-person feature in Anno 117 than strolling along the road. I was especially delighted the moment I learned that besides being able to observe crop lands, but also enter them. And even though I thought interiors would be restricted, I could walk onto mud extraction sites, tour an esteemed educational structure while lessons were in session, and invade personal courtyards. Don't bother with door access (not even the creators planned for that functionality), however, you can definitely stroll around a barley farm, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and glance into any tiny hut when there's no doorway obstructing.
Graphics and Ambiance
Even though I expected to witness my city rendered with outdated visual quality, besides some crude animations and periodic inhabitants sitting within a bench as opposed to atop a bench, first-person mode looks much better than expected. The meticulously crafted materials (particularly rock faces) are unexpectedly excellent within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You won't necessarily notice specific hair details, yet you will notice wall inscriptions, fiery particles from lamps, fading on bricks, eye details, and pine tree leaves. The night, featuring dancing flames and stars shining in the distance, is especially atmospheric, and feels much less frightening versus the earlier title, now that the citizens don’t look like sleep paralysis demons anymore.
Experimentation and Customization
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode has no guided tutorial, I chose to test various actions, and promptly found the options to jump, sprint, and changing perspective — the last option enabling me to change from first-person to third-person mode and revert. I then experimented with certain numeric keys and learned I could modify my character’s appearance. Golden robe? Red toga? Blue and purple toga? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; if you activate the engage command, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. In case you’re wondering, harming inhabitants is impossible (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
However, I had no desire to injure my people, as they're remarkably entertaining. Shortly after I activated the first-person view, I overheard a father telling his child that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and if you feed it one more chicken, your grandmother will be furious.” Understandable stance, father character. A friendly native Celtic person then proceeded to praise my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female opted to menace me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Thrill of Transportation
Just as I assumed I had found everything available in the title's first-person feature, I found the joys of joyriding across historical settings. Completely unexpectedly, I clicked on a wagon and quickly occupied the transport. Cattle, asses, even human-pulled carts; you can drive them all at your leisure. The donkey-powered transport, notably, moves quite quickly, though you shouldn’t imagine Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (once more, not admitting any attempts).
Fighting Restrictions
The sole aspect that let me down regarding the first-person view was finding out I couldn’t partake in any fighting. Equipped in warrior attire, I approached opposing forces amidst fighting and endeavored to damage them, but was entirely disregarded. The front-row seat was still rather spectacular, and seeing opponents retreat, their limbs waving wildly, proved very satisfying, though it might have been amazing to successfully impact objects with my burning arrows.
